Okay is wonderful
by kazzymetron
Summary: The times that Callie thinks that life might be okay now that the Foster family are looking after them and the moments that make her believe it. Pure Foster family fluff, there may be some implied Brallie later on because I just can't help myself.
1. Night Terrors

**AN: **I have become completely obsessed with The Fosters so naturally I got a million ideas for fanfic for them! This is (hopefully) going to become a series of moments focusing on Callie and Jude's relationship with the rest of the Foster family because I just can't get enough of the sibling relationships in this show.

* * *

**Night Terrors**

Jesus woke one night to the sound of whimpering and crying from across the room. After wiping his eyes, he saw Jude's tiny figure tossing and turning across the room, having what Jesus recognized straight away as night terrors: when they first arrived at the Fosters' home, the only way that the twins could have a good, peaceful sleep was if they were curled up together or held by one of their moms. That's how Jesus knew exactly what Jude needed right now: his sister. Just as the teen was getting up to go and fetch Callie, however, Jude's eyes flew open, full of fear. Jesus quickly crossed the room instead, kneeling down next to the small, cowering boy, comforting him by whispering "It's alright, you're safe here," and, once the small boy's breathing had slowed, "I'll go get your sister, okay?" Jude nodded and sat up, only a little bit less fearful of the daemons in his dreams and Jesus left to creep across the hall into the girls' room.

Callie wasn't used to being in a safe place either and so any sign of movement outside of her door immediately woke her. She had learnt to freeze in these situations until she knew it was safe and so that's what she did, pretending to be asleep as she listened to the sounds of someone walking into her room. It wasn't until she heard her name being whispered in a gentle, not menacing, tone, that she began to relax but even then she didn't move a muscle until she recognised the voice as Jesus's.

"Jude's –" Jesus began to explain, but Callie didn't let him finish, already out of her bed and all but running towards her little brother, not caring about anything else.

Jesus padded behind her, reaching his room as Callie engulfed the small boy in her arms, soothing him and encouraging him to talk it through with her. Seeing the little family this vulnerable, Jesus decided that they needed some alone time and wandered back to the girls' room to wait for a bit. Seeing that his sister was awake now as well, he sat on the edge of her bed and gave her a big hug, met by grumpy but slightly amused protests asking what was going on. Eventually Jesus pulled away, and explained, "Jude's having the night terrors and, well, it brought back some memories." Mariana's features softened as she remembered those times, years ago, and how important Jesus had been then. Sitting up, she moved over a bit to make room for him to wait with her and they fell into comfortable silence.

Across the hall, Jude had talked everything through with Callie and they now sat in silence as well, the older girl's hand moving through his hair, soothing him the only way she knew. She had told him over and over that the bad times were gone for now, they were in a safe place and it would be okay. The more she said it, the more Callie started to believe it herself. She couldn't allow herself to believe that this safety was as permanent as she led Jude to believe but she was beginning to allow herself to see that it was real for them right now and would continue to be for at least a few months.

Once the comfortable silence between the twins turned into bickering about who was hogging most of the bed, Jesus decided it was time to go back to his own room and let Mariana sleep off her mood. He stood in the doorway for a moment, watching his two foster siblings. Just as he was about to move, Callie looked up and shifted slightly, not knowing whether to smile at his gentle expression or tense up at being watched in a vulnerable moment. Jude noticed this shift and looked up, more trusting and hopeful than his sister and Jesus took this as the cue to make his way over to them.

"Hey dude," Jesus said as he lowered himself down on the other side of Jude's bed, "how would you like to have some skateboarding lessons from me tomorrow after school?" Jude's eyes lit up as they found reassurance in his sisters' smile and turned to Jesus nodding with a big grin on his face,

"Cool. Well then, how about we get lots of sleep now so that we're on our best form tomorrow?" Jesus prompted, mussing up Jude's hair lightly. Both Callie and Jude nodded and the two teens stood up, letting the boy lay down, immediately falling into a more peaceful sleep with a smile on his face.

Callie gave her brother a kiss on his forehead and tiptoed out of the room, turning back to thank Jesus for everything. Now she knew that her brother was sharing a room with a good, trustworthy person and that meant the world. She knew, now, that Jude would be looked after as long as they stayed with the Fosters.

"Don't worry about it, I've been there," Jesus replied. When this was met by a cynical look from Callie, who couldn't imagine him as anything less than the confident boy she knew, he continued, "Seriously, you shoulda seen Mariana and I a few years ago. It's what the system does to kids," with a sincere look in his eyes. It was then that Callie realised that he really did have some idea of what her life had been like. Before she could say anything acknowledging this, however, her foster brother was retreating back into his room with a friendly nod.

As she entered her own room, Callie braced herself to get a hard time from a grumpy 15 year old, promising herself that she wouldn't get sucked into an argument in the middle of the night. To her surprise however, Mariana simply smiled at her before rolling over to go back to sleep. Although surprised, Callie had learnt early on to accept it when people behaved in your favour and simply shrugged before climbing into her own bed and settling back to go to sleep. It felt like something special had been shared that night, something only understood by the members of the Foster family who had been in the system. As she drifted off, Callie thought, for the first time, that maybe herself and Jude would be okay now.


	2. Mess and cuts

**Mess and cuts**

When Jude first came to her with a gash in his knee, Callie was calm. She followed the normal routine and sat him down in the living room with strict instructions to stay still but keep the cut elevated while she went into the kitchen to find everything she needed to clean and patch him up. She'd done this countless times before; Jude seemed to have a talent for hurting himself at least once a week, especially when they first arrived at a new home. By now she had figured out the patterns concerning the location of the necessities to create a small, make shift first aid kit. What she wasn't used to, however, was Jude being so relaxed; that was new to the Fosters' home.

So, when Callie found Jude with a cushion pressed over the cut, she was shocked.  
"Jude! What are you doing?" she demanded as she ran over to him, snatching the cushion out of his hands and kneeling down to clean the cut. She sorted everything out in silence, not looking or speaking to her brother as she cleaned and dressed his wound. Eventually she looked up and said, "Right, that should be fine," standing and indicating for him to go carry on with the rest of his day. When Jude didn't move she sighed, looking down at him and following his gaze to the cushion with blood stains soaking into it.  
"Look, don't worry about it. I'll sort it, I always do," Callie said, softer this time, allowing him to relax a bit more. Jude stood up and, after giving his sister a grateful hug, disappeared outside again to re-join the twins on the trampoline.

* * *

When Brandon walked into his kitchen after lunch with his dad he found Callie opening and closing cupboards frantically, leaving a trail of destruction behind her.  
"Hey!" He called, trying to get her attention unsuccessfully as she just carried on, clattering around the kitchen without noticing anything else. Eventually she crashed into him on her way to the one cupboard that hadn't yet been opened. Shocked, Callie took a small step back and they stood there for a minute just looking at each other. Eventually Brandon reached for the girl's shoulders, holding her still before asking, "What are you doing?"  
"Jude. Jude got blood on your cushion," she stammered, distracted with worry about what he'd say and what his parents would think and how long till they go to the next "home".

To her surprise, Brandon just nodded thoughtfully and walked away. The next thing Callie knew, laughter was coming from the living room and Brandon came through holding the cushion and shaking his head.  
"What the hell?" Callie exclaimed, suddenly angry at how casually he was handling the situation, pushing past him to search the last cupboard.  
"Callie! Callie! This is nothing! Seriously, a few blood spots? We'll just put it in the wash," Brandon said as he removed the cover, watching Callie stop and turn slowing, looking at him with disbelief.  
"But me and Jude, we're nothing. We're guests, why would they keep us if we mess up," she stated, rather than asked. Brandon took a step closer, smiling at Callie despite her frown and furrowed brow.  
"Look, the first week Jesus and Mariana were here, Mariana used up all of moms' make up trying to put on a fashion show for us, the next week Jesus broke the swing trying to show off in front of us. They never even considered the twins leaving; nothing else was good enough for them in my moms' eyes. Kids make messes, moms know that, they're used to it, Callie, and they're past caring," Brandon explained. Callie slowly nodded, trying to understand that she actually believed him. Something in her told her to trust him and so she walked over to inspect the cushion cover thoughtfully. Seeing that she was coming around, Brandon smiled and told her, "They probably don't even remember that all the cushion covers used to all match,"  
"Thanks," Callie said, smiling and patting his shoulder gratefully as she left, heading upstairs to put the cover in the wash basket. Brandon watched as she went up the stairs before pulling himself together and going out to join the rest of his family in the garden.

Callie sat in her room, scrolling through her instagram for a bit to calm herself down, thinking about how and why she trusted Brandon so much. When she felt like she would explode from thinking to much, she grabbed her guitar and headed down to join everyone in the garden. The rest of the family was busy with their own activities: Mariana sunbathing, Jesus and Jude playing some boys' game and Lena and Brandon chatting on the porch and so Callie decided to just sit on the steps to practice her guitar. When her brother saw this, he left the game and came over to her, apologizing for earlier, ending with "They're cool here, they won't kick us out for that, will they?" throwing a glance back to the porch, smiling at his foster mom.  
"No, dude. Don't worry, I've sorted it," Callie said, smiling at him with reassurance. Jude nodded and, looking at the guitar in his sister's hands, asked "can you actually play that?" reaching to touch the instrument.  
"Dude. No touching unless you're playing," Callie joked as she pulled back and strummed a chord to prove to him that she could actually play.  
"First rule of music that is," Brandon chimed in, coming from behind to sit on the other side of Jude, winking at him before continuing, "you know I'm the real music genius in this house, don't trust everything she says," giving the younger boy a brotherly nudge. Callie pulled a face at them and the two boys laughed, creating a sense of comfort between them as they started chatting casually. It wasn't long before the twins came over to join in, all six teens talking amongst themselves, seemingly having a drama free afternoon for once. When Stef came home from work, she found Lena sat watching them and filled up with pride at how well her children had accepted the two new foster children. She turned to her wife and kissed her on the cheek, knowing now that all the attitude and stress had been worth it to see Callie and Jude so relaxed and happy with the rest of the family for the first time.


	3. Protection

**Protection**

Callie had always been the protector: the older sister who took care of whoever she needed to. When her mom was dying, Callie was the one who took care of her and after that she took care of Jude and any other foster siblings who she might form a bond with. For years and years Callie had been the responsible one, the one who soothed the sick kids or took the blame for the ones in trouble. It was the only way she knew how to show that she cared. The first time that she experienced someone else showing their love in this way was when she was at the Fosters'.

When she first saw Jude fall off Jesus's skateboard, Callie ran out, ready to comfort her baby brother, only to see both boys stood up, laughing together casually. She couldn't help herself, though, and went over anyway to stand next to Jesus and watch her brother work out how to move without falling off.  
"Is he alright?" Callie asked her foster brother, more hostile than usual due to worry.  
"Yeah, he's a tough kid." Jesus replied, only to be met by a look of disbelief, prompting him to sigh and say, "Chill, I won't let anything happen to him," before giving the younger boy some more tips on his balance.

After just watching for a bit, Callie got out her phone and snapped some pictures of the scene in front of her. Before she could review or post them, however, she heard her name being called from the kitchen and turned to go back inside.  
"Hey," the Lena said when Callie arrived at the door, "could you come shopping with me today? I don't really know what you or Jude like to eat so I could really use your help this week," Callie was shocked: none of her previous homes had cared about anything like this, not even the nicest ones, so she agreed and they arranged to go out that afternoon.

* * *

The trip started out rather awkwardly, with the two of them sat in the car not sure what to say to each other. About halfway there Lena asked if Callie wanted the radio on, she nodded and they both reached over to the 'on' button. Lena got there first and a loud, poppy number came on, making them both wince and pull back. This broke the tension a bit and they shared despairing groans when Lena explained, "Stef took Mariana to meet Garret for lunch, this is their kind of music," clearly indicating that this wasn't what she liked. Callie scrunched up her nose as she replied, "yeah, figures. Mind if I find a decent station?"  
"Please," Lena said, gratefully and Callie reached for the tuner. For the rest of the journey they laughed through the random stations she found, going from country to classical to heavy metal and back again, none of which suited them. Finally they settled on a station that played the alternative sound they agreed on, just as Lena pulled into the car park.  
"At least we'll have good music on the way home," the older woman said they jumped out of the car and headed towards the store.

It was a normal, mundane, weekly shop. Lena mentally checked off the foods Callie took most interest in and they casually chatted about nothing in particular as they walked round, a comfortable relationship developing between them. However, when they were filling the cart up with juice, Callie looked up and froze. At the end of the isle a muscular man stood, staring at her. The teen's brain seemed to slow down and she didn't know what to do other than stop and stare. The next thing Callie knew, Lena was in front of her, brow creased, asking if she was okay.  
"Uh, yeah. I just. It's really hot in here, you know? I think I need to get some fresh air," Callie replied, glancing back to find the end of the isle blocked by a mom trying to control her kids, not the man she thought was there a minute ago.  
"Okay, I'll finish up and meet you outside in five?" Lena asked, worried but understanding that this was a girl who needed her space. They agreed to meet on the bench just outside and went their separate ways.

She hadn't been outside five minutes when she heard a deep voice saying "Hi Callie," and felt a shadow fell over her.  
"Liam," she said, barely looking up but cowering into herself even more in an attempt to get away from him. Liam continued to advance towards her, his face arranged in a mask of friendliness that was intimidating to Callie only. He was just reaching out for her, smaller than ever and terrified, when Lena saw and approached them,  
"Who's this?" Lena asked as she arrived, standing facing both Liam and Callie at the side, trying to work out what was going on.  
"I'm an old friend, we were just having a little catch up" Liam replied before Callie could, not looking away from the cowering girl. Lena didn't believe him, however, and saw a plea in her foster daughter's eyes when they met her own. Turning to the boy with a fake cheerful look on her face, she said, "Look, I'm sure she'd love to catch up but we really have to go. Family movie night won't wait for the popcorn forever!" as she handed Callie some bags, signalling for her to take them over to the car. The younger girl did as she was told, leaving Lena and Liam together for a minute, just long enough for Lena to mutter, "You're no friend of hers, now back off or you'll have my wife and her police force to deal with," before pushing past him to meet Callie at the car.

As they climbed back into the car, Lena turned to Callie, fire in her eyes as she said "I don't need to know anything about him but I know he isn't good news so I need you to tell me if he ever bothers you again, okay?" before starting the engine and filling the car with music once again. Callie didn't speak until they reached the house. Then, as they were opening the boot she whispered "Thanks," staring straight ahead so Lena couldn't see how her eyes sparkled with tears at the kindness and protection she had just found.

The rest of the day was normal; the family knew their routine by now and followed it like clockwork. The teenagers shared the chores after dinner and they sat down to watch a movie together, interrupted with the occasional popcorn fight. Later on, Callie was sat on her bed looking through her pictures when she found the ones she took that morning of her brother and foster brother together. As she looked, she saw how Jesus protected Jude, constantly spotting him with a genuinely caring look on his face, despite the laughter that they shared. An unusual feeling crept over her and she thought: maybe, now, I don't have to be the sole protector, maybe I can let someone else help for once, and maybe they'll even protect me. She only allowed herself to think that for a minute, however and quickly told herself off, not wanting to get her hopes up before rolling over to go to sleep for the night.


	4. Sibling strength

**Sibling strength**

Callie returned to her room after another long talk with Stef and Lena to find Mariana sat up in her bed. They exchanged small smiles, Callie's a bit watery, before Callie headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed and Mariana went back to her magazine, disappointed that she didn't gain any more information. The younger girl knew that something was wrong: her moms and foster sister had been having a lot of these talks at night, always ending with Callie coming to bed late looking shaken. Mariana was curious, so she decided to stay up that night and try to talk about it with her. As Callie walked back into their room, Mariana looked up and asked, "So, how's Wyatt these days?" in the most casual tone she could muster. Callie climbed into bed silently, confused at this sudden concern about Wyatt after a complete lack of interest following his party.  
"You can't blame me for asking, he was some good eye candy," Mariana joked, recieving a small laugh from Callie response before she replied, "Uh, I don't know, things kind of changed, I guess?" shifting in her bed to make it clear that the conversation was over. With a small sigh, Mariana gave up, muttering "Shame. Oh well, there are plenty more fishes in the sea," before both girls turned off their lights to go to sleep.

Jesus had also noticed the new intensity of Callie's relationship with his parents and decided to ask Brandon about it on the way home the next day. This was unsuccessful, however, and Brandon just changed the subject, teasing him yet again for his slip up with Lexi. With Jude at afterschool tutoring the boys were a little more open and graphic than normal and Brandon was still a bit shocked that he was having this type of banter with his little brother. To his relief, they were soon stopped when they heard behind and turned to see Callie and Mariana walking towards them.  
"First of all, ew, I did not need to hear that," Mariana started as she walked into the gap between the brothers, "second of all, you've heard about the beach party tonight, right? Can either of you two convince Callie to come with me?" she asked, looking despairingly at the girl who was stood opposite her, arms folded in stubborn defiance. They stood like that until Callie was fed up of the pleading and reluctantly agreed to act as chaperone. After a pleading look from his foster sister, Brandon chimed in, claiming that he'd better tag along to keep an eye on all of them. With smiles from the twins, they continued their walk home, the twins now together just behind Callie and Brandon.

* * *

That evening, the four of them were relaxing at the beach party: Mariana chatting to some of her friends enthusiastically; Jesus lost in his own world with Lexi and Brandon and Callie sat around a fire with a group from their grade. Callie didn't know anyone very well and so she'd brought along her guitar to play instead of sitting there awkwardly as she was now used to. Her gentle strumming proved to be the perfect background music and meant that her peers accepted her presence easily. The two elder siblings ensured they kept an eye on the twins but were still able to relax enough until Callie practically dropped her guitar in the middle of a song, standing up quickly and nearly running away from the party into a dark corner of the beach.

Both Mariana and Brandon noticed and both went to follow but Mariana cut in front of her older brother, saying, "let me, for once?" and convincing him that she could do it with the fierce protection in her eyes. When the younger girl was a few strides away from her foster sister she stopped, recognizing the shape of a big man towering over Callie who seemed to be shrinking more with every movement.  
"Hey, Callie! We need to go!" Mariana called in a fake cheerful voice before striding over to grab Callie's arm and pull her away as quickly as she could towards where both of her brothers were now standing watching them. Before facing her foster siblings, Callie glanced back to see Liam retreating away from the beach, seemingly unfazed by what just happened. Upon turning back she found three pairs of eyes on her, concern apparent in every one of them, she shuffled uncomfortably before Brandon took charge and said "Let's go," to save her from the questions that were forming in his siblings' eyes.

For most of the walk the twins hung back and let Callie and Brandon lead the way. From the moment they left the beach, the twins were whispering quickly to each other in Spanish, trying to figure everything out between them. However, they soon became louder and louder until the two older teens heard and stopped, raising their eyebrows at each other as they turned to face the guilty looks on the twins' faces.  
"Hey, you know its rude to have conversations that we can't understand," Brandon chastised them in his classic big brother way. Callie sunk down onto a nearby wall, resigned to what she had to do.  
"B, its fine. They want to know who it was and they should know," she stated, looking at the ground to avoid the stares. Mariana and Jesus exchanged looks and shuffled uncomfortably before Jesus moved forward and said, "I mean, only if you want to tell us," earning a slapped arm from his sister for being cheeky. Callie just sighed and Brandon sat down next to her for solidarity.  
"That guy. Liam. He, I, I used to know him. He did some…some bad things to me a few years a go," she explained, stopping herself, knowing she was nearly at breaking point. Shocked, Mariana sat next to her foster sister, pausing before asking, "do moms know?" and glaring at Jesus who was cracking his knuckles unhelpfully, building a sense of tension.  
"They know," Brandon confirmed after Callie didn't move a muscle. Jesus finally sat down next to his brother, shock taking over from anger.

They all sat there for a minute until Mariana tentatively reached over and squeezed Callie's hand. The pair smiled at each other and stood up together, walking the last mile home without much conversation. Brandon and Jesus followed, the older boy filling in some of the gaps in the younger boy's knowledge. When the four teens entered their house they ran straight into Stef coming down from saying goodnight to Jude. Lena joined them in the hall, surprised at the early arrival. As the two moms looked from their children to each other, they became concerned and Lena led the group into the living room.  
Callie sat down first, Lena and Stef sitting on either side of her, before she started telling them about the latter part of the night. The other three sat eventually, filling in any details they thought of. As it sunk in, both Stef and Lena realised that it was time to let the twins into these conversations and they prepared themselves for a long family talk. When they were all talked out, the teenagers headed up to bed in comfortable silence, exchanging small smiles before heading into their respective rooms to sleep for the night. Callie's eyes were shining with tears of happiness as she drifted off to sleep feeling loved for the first time in a long time.


	5. In touch

**In touch**

The Fosters tended to ignore the mail box outside their house for a week then bring in whatever that had collected in there every Sunday morning. This week it was Callie's job and so she joined everyone at breakfast shuffling through the pile of envelopes: mostly containing bills and all addressed to Stef and Lena. There was one letter that stood out to Callie: a small envelope with a handwritten address was hidden in the middle of all the envelopes with printed, official looking labels. This envelope, however, had some personal touches, with little doodles everywhere and an imperfect seal revealing the corner of a sheet of lined paper. Callie moved this letter to the top of the pile, intrigued by it and eager to see the family's reaction as she put the pile in the middle of the table and sat down for breakfast.

"Woah, people actually write letters by hand?" Jude asked, joining his sister and noticing the envelope in front of him. Everyone chuckled and Callie nudged her brother, saying "yeah, dude. It's how people communicated in the old days," and widening her eyes playfully.  
"It'll be from Rachel," Mariana said, setting out the glasses and joining them.  
"Yeah, we haven't heard from her in a while, actually. She always hated communicating in the 21st century; remember when that boy tried to ask her out by text?" Lena laughed from the counter.  
"Oh yeah, she nearly broke her phone throwing it across the room, she hated that thing," Jesus remembered and the rest of the family laughed.  
"She certainly was a character, I'm glad she stayed in touch," Stef joined in, adding the food to the breakfast table as Brandon brought over the juice. Lena leaned over her wife to reach the letter and started skimming through it, smiling slightly at the paper.  
"Well apparently she's found a pen pal to fall in love with all the way in England," she told the family, "Wow. She's off to college this year, moving away from Cory and Ella for the first time since she got there" she continued, surprised at how fast time had gone.

Callie and Jude sat there, unsure of what was going on. After a lull in conversation, the older girl leaned towards Brandon and asked, "So Rachel is…?"  
"We fostered Rachel for a bit about four years ago, she moved to California to be adopted by Cory and Ella, they're pretty cool. We get a letter from her every few months," Brandon said. Callie nodded slowly, the concept of staying in touch with an ex-foster family completely alien to her.  
"Oh, that reminds me, Jesus, you need to read Max's latest email, he's started playing a bunch of sports and we don't understand half of his messages anymore," Lena said before sitting down and tucking in to breakfast with the rest of the family.  
"Wait, Max?" Callie asked, unwilling to accept that they had stayed in touch with more than one past foster kid. Jesus looked up and replied, "he stayed with us a few years ago, sweet kid, where'd he end up again?" with a mouth full of breakfast, earning disapproving looks from his moms and sister.  
"Hawaii, with Bill and Claire, lucky boy," Brandon said.  
"You stay in touch with your old foster kids?" Callie asked, picking at her food with raised eyebrows. Stef and Lena exchanged confused glances hearing Callie's scepticism before Stef replied, "yeah, pretty much, as long as they want to,"  
"That's awesome!" Jude said excitedly, lapping up the love that surrounded this family and all of its extensions. The Foster family were all surprised by the fact that this seemed to be a novelty to the Jacobs siblings but carried on with the morning routine as normal before all the kids disappeared upstairs to work on all the homework they'd procrastinated on over the weekend.

Mariana and Callie sat on their beds with their headphones in for most of the morning: Callie was working on her homework or texting Wyatt and Mariana was getting distracted by her laptop every time she tried to concentrate on her homework. Just before lunchtime Callie finished everything she had to do that day and picked up her guitar, starting to strum gently. After a minute, Mariana looked up from her laptop, causing Callie to stop and ask "Sorry, do you want me to take this outside?" with an apologetic smile. Mariana smiled back and answered "oh, no, it's nice, I like it," before moving her laptop aside and trying to focus on her math homework once more.  
"Hey, do you want to use my laptop at all?" Mariana said when Callie paused before picking up her guitar again, "you know, to contact old friends or whatever,"  
"Nah, I don't really have anyone," Callie answered her foster sister,  
"What, no old foster families or cute boys from past schools you want to stalk on facebook?" Mariana asked, winking and abandoning her homework once more. Callie just scrunched up her face a bit and said, "nope, I don't have facebook,"  
"What?" Mariana said, aghast, "but how are we going to talk once you're adopted?"  
"Uhm," Callie said, shocked that it mattered to her foster sister, "I guess it's just never been needed," she responded, "no one's ever asked if I have it," she continued with a shrug.

To Callie's surprise, the next thing she knew, Mariana had been sat next to her on her bed for half an hour, setting up a facebook account and adding most of the school as 'friends'. They laughed together as they pulled faces at the web cam, trying to create a profile picture for Callie then Mariana then demonstrated the art of facebook stalking, guiding the less experienced girl through Wyatt's embarrassing old pictures and Lexi's ancient statuses filled with embarrassing slang and spelling mistakes. Stef appeared at their door as they were laughing at a particularly bad picture of little Wyatt with no hair, she smiled at them and told them that there was a picnic basket waiting for them outside if they wanted to join them for lunch. The girls nodded and went straight back to Mariana's laptop. Stef was just happy to see them getting along so well so she didn't mind and left them to it, going down to join Lena, Jude and her two sons.

Eventually Callie's stomach let out a large groan and the two girls laughed and agreed to go down to the join the rest of the family. As they approached them in the garden Stef looked up and said , "Hey loves, finally prised yourself away from that laptop? We saved you some sandwiches," as she moved over to make room on the little blanket they were using. Mariana beamed as she sat down, "I just set Callie up with a facebook, now she can talk to us when she and Jude go off to Hawaii or California or wherever with their next family," she told everyone proudly. Although Jude looked a bit forlorn at the idea of leaving this house, he smiled at said, "that's awesome," finishing off his meal. Jesus saw the younger boy's slight disappointment and lent over to him, asking if he wanted to set up an account after lunch. Jude nodded happily and Callie looked around at the family as they lapsed into casual conversations once more. For the first time she felt like a friend in the family rather than a random foster kid, and, when she met Jude's eyes she could see the same kind of happiness reflected back at her. The two Jacobs siblings smiled at each other calmly before Callie asked him about his tutoring with Lena, allowing herself to relax into the routine again.


End file.
